Portable Generator

[Financegal]

I just bought a generator and had a transfer switch installed. I spoke to neighbors to see what they all had. We all have 500 gallon propane tanks for fuel for the furnace and hot water heater. Most everyone has a transfer switch. Most had a 5000-5500 watt genertor but many told me that they wished they'd have gone slightly higher but that size is fine.

Perhaps you can do the same. I knew nothing about figuring watts until I began this process. Then I called an electrician and asked questions and he worked with me before he installed the switch. I took the advice of those saying to go slightly larger and I bought a 7000 watt B&S.

BTW, did you read teh 3 or 4 pages of reviews on the TSC generator you provided a link. Looked like most felt it was a great buy - don't recall anyone totally displeased in the first two pages - did read that someone wished it came with a wheel kit so he added his own so it was more mobile to move around.

 

[robs660]

I have a 12,500 watt surge 10,000watt constant model we bought from northern tool. I have never overloaded it running about 1/2 my house with no problem. I can run 9 hours at about 2/3 load and it's not too loud. I have a manual transfer switch and feel comfortable about that. I would tell you that more is better when it comes to something like this. Last thing you want to do is have to choose fridge or heat?

Good luck shopping

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I have a 12,500 watt surge 10,000watt constant model we bought from northern tool. I have never overloaded it running about 1/2 my house with no problem. I can run 9 hours at about 2/3 load and it's not too loud. I have a manual transfer switch and feel comfortable about that. I would tell you that more is better when it comes to something like this. Last thing you want to do is have to choose fridge or heat?

Good luck shopping

I'd say the last thing you want to do is run out of fuel half way through the outage and not have fridge or heat. It's all about planning. A generator is no good without fuel, and gasoline doesn't store very well. You have to decide what amount of time you are going to be prepared for. Buy that much fuel, use a stabilizer, and keep it rotated.

 

[ragkar]

A few years ago I thought long and hard before buying my 6500 kw generator and a manual transfer switch. It would be nice if I had auto-switch and the whole house is covered and the generator exercises and tests itself during the summer months. But outages are not that frequent around here and the costs to get that level of protection can approach 15 thousand dollars.
So I settled on the essential circuits, like water, fridge, heater and a few rooms (not all of them). The bigger the load, the faster I'll run out of fuel. About twenty years ago I lived through a ten day outage without backup power.
I found that the cost of the transfer switch and electrician work equaled the cost of the generator.
Here is a good primer for answering your question. By the way, I purchased my generator from them.
Standby Generator Buyer's Guide - How to Pick the Perfect Home Standby Generator How to Advice from the Product Experts at Electric Generators Direct

 

[rtimgray]

I had always thought that I wanted a whole house or at least very large generator. When we started building our house (7 or so years ago), I bought a portable Coleman generator with a Briggs & Stratton engine. It's a 5500w/6250w or something like that. Anyway, I used it for years building the house and around the farm and have been very happy with it.

In the fall 2008 we had "Hurricane Ike" come through western KY and we lost power for 4 days. That was the first time that I hooked the generator up to the household system (cutting the main, so there was no chance of backfeed). We found out we could run several circuits for lights, fridge, TV, etc. We have a propane stove and gas logs, so we would cook and heat anywa.

Then we had the ice storm in 2009 - we were out of power for 18 days. Again, we ended up being in good shape thanks to gas stove/heat and having our generator. The biggest concern then, as others have brought up, was fuel consumption. A generator is just a big paperweight without fuel. I was fortunate that I had enough fuel on hand to run the generator the first several days until we could get out (and had to drive about 40 miles to get fuel). I was very pleased with the level of consumption of fuel - it would run under 50-75% load and use about 1/2 gallon per hour.

We don't have a propane water heater, so we had no hot water - until I rigged up an old 5 gallon 120v electric unit that I had in the pump house. When it kicked on (I think it was 1800w) you could hear the generator bog down for a second and run a little harder). I backfed the plumbing system and we could take a quick shower.

Anyway, I say all that to reinforce what others have said - picking a generator is a function of your needs/desires, funds, and availability of fuel. I'm gonna keep a generator about the size that I have because it's big enough for us to live comfortably using it, not use too much fuel, not cost too much, and it's still easy to move around the farm for other uses.

I plan on picking up another one about the same size since the current one is about 10 years old.

Good luck and take care.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Thank all of you for the infomation and advice. In the beginning I only wanted a small generator to run a couple of hosehold items and be portable enough to carry to other parts of the property and other farm.

I have a 600 gal propane tank for the gas furnace and plan for a future whole house generator that will run off the propane. However power outages are rare around here unless we get an ice storm and have had several of those in the past few years. So a whole house gen would be nice but past history says power outages are few and last only 4-12 hours. However there have been areas that power was out for several days. This is what has led me to think about getting a larger portable gen to run essential items like:

woodfurnace for heat, two fans in the back duct into whole house. This is all the heat we would need, also have gas logs so would/could use to power fan for gas logs. But would most likely use the wood furnace for heat.

Well pump, stove, electric water heater, 2 refrigerators, 1 freezer, TV, and a few lights.

Most of the places that carry portable generators around here have only the smaller ones in stock so I would need to order anything bigger than 4000w. I could run the generator intermittent if power was out more than say 6-10 hours. I would like to have something that did not use a lot of fuel; I usually keep 5-10 gal of gas on hand.

I will talk to my electrician this weekend and hopefully make a decision in the next couplle of weeks.

Thanks again for the advice and information.

 

[dex3361]

run essential items like:

woodfurnace for heat, two fans in the back duct into whole house. This is all the heat we would need, also have gas logs so would/could use to power fan for gas logs. But would most likely use the wood furnace for heat.

Well pump, stove, electric water heater, 2 refrigerators, 1 freezer, TV, and a few lights.



Thanks again for the advice and information.

I have about the same set up as you and I chose to upgrade to a small diesel 6500W generator and it serves my needs well. It uses about 1/4 gallon an hour at 1/2 load. Compared to my previous gas generator which consumed about a gallon an hour at the same load. I chose an Aurora open frame generator

 

[dmccarty]

DR makes a generator that hooks up to their brush cutters. The generators are around 5,000-6,000 watt continuous depending on when you buy.

I bought a DR generator to hook up to the brush cutter. I think it was around $600 for 6,500/6,000 watts. The brush cutter could handle more generator but DR only sells one size. I certainly will never overpower the brush cutter engine. :laughing:

Buying a DR brush cutter is not a good way to get a generator but if you already have or think you will want a DR brush cutter it is worth a look.

DR always has a sale. But this time of year is the best time to buy.

Later,
Dan

 

[Financegal]

Thank all of you for the infomation and advice. In the beginning I only wanted a small generator to run a couple of hosehold items and be portable enough to carry to other parts of the property and other farm.

I have a 600 gal propane tank for the gas furnace and plan for a future whole house generator that will run off the propane. However power outages are rare around here unless we get an ice storm and have had several of those in the past few years. So a whole house gen would be nice but past history says power outages are few and last only 4-12 hours. However there have been areas that power was out for several days. This is what has led me to think about getting a larger portable gen to run essential items like:

woodfurnace for heat, two fans in the back duct into whole house. This is all the heat we would need, also have gas logs so would/could use to power fan for gas logs. But would most likely use the wood furnace for heat.

Well pump, stove, electric water heater, 2 refrigerators, 1 freezer, TV, and a few lights.



Work with an electrcian beforehand to make it easier on you. With an electric water heater and if your stove is electric also, you may not be able to use those. Discussing things with an electrician beforehand allows you to think about workarounds. As an example, if your stove is electric and you can't cook meals with that, you may want your microwave on a switch and some plugs in the kitchen would also mean you could use a crockpot. Central air conditioning is out of the question but you may be able to power a window unit and keep a small area cool. Those decisions also will determine how large a transfer switch you want (6, 8, . . . ) Also, I believe your well pump will use 2 circuits on it's own so will a 6 circuit switch be enough?

I don't store gas on hand but I live in VA and our winters are much milder and shorter. Last year our winter was brutal but that's the exception to the rule. The weather folks have gotten spot on at predicting snow storms and the amount of snow expected with it. I have a small corner in the garage with all the things needed in an outage. Generator stayed plugged in, I have 5 five gallon containers for gas, gencord and I laminated the instructions of how to do the whole setup. I can always get gas before an expected storm or at the first snowflake. If the storm never happens I'll just empty that gas into our car tanks. During summer storms, with no snow we can always get out to get gas with no problems. Being in VA I think this should work for me - I'd store/rotate much more gas if I lived in a northern state that got a lot of snow or had outages all the time.

 

[KubotainNH]

I have a 600 gal propane tank for the gas furnace and plan for a future whole house generator that will run off the propane. However power outages are rare around here unless we get an ice storm and have had several of those in the past few years. So a whole house gen would be nice but past history says power outages are few and last only 4-12 hours. However there have been areas that power was out for several days. This is what has led me to think about getting a larger portable gen to run essential items like:

Well pump, stove, electric water heater, 2 refrigerators, 1 freezer, TV, and a few lights.

Having 3 cooling compressors to run plus water pump & heater means you'll want a large unit. Anything that runs 220v brings other issues to the table. You can tie 2 of the switches together on my transfer switch to get 220v but you cannot run a stove through it because the switches are only rated for 20amps not the 40 or 50 amps needed for a stove. You'd want to go the extra mile and get the whole house switch. NorthernTool.com has a bunch of generator equipment you can peruse to get an idea of what you can buy including auto transfer switches and tri-fuel gen's that run gas/propane/natural gas.

Was just looking around, if still early in your house build then maybe a panel like this would be good. It looks like it's all built in. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200321929_200321929